Hard fats are specially important in confectionery, bakery and pharmaceutical products. Such fats have the special property that at room temperature they are hard but melt quickly at body temperature, e.g. in the mouth. The most important example of a hard fat is cocoabutter. Because of its very special properties, although also because of long association, cocoabutter can command high prices. There has been a long-standing need for fats that can act as replacers, for example, for cocoa-butter. As more fully explained below, fats have been developed that partly meet this need. But all these fats suffer from one or more disadvantages.
A further problem with hard fats is that, although they indeed have special properties particularly fitting them for their use in specialty products such as confectionery, bakery and pharmaceutical products, the theoretical optimum behaviour is far from met by the available fats. For instance there is a need for a fat that would enable chocolate to be prepared that would show less finger-imprinting than chocolate made from ococoa-butter but would still display sharp melting characteristics in the mouth. Another instance is the need for a fat that would enable chocolate to be made at comparatively high ambient temperature or, a separate problem, to be made using cooling water at a comparatively high temperature; at present manufacture of chocolate is almost impossible where high ambient or high cooling water temperatures occur. Further instances are the need for a fat there is more bloom-resistant than cocoa-butter and a fat that would enable chocolate to be stored under tropical or semi-tropical conditions e.g. in centrally heated buildings. General needs are for fats that enable more flexibility and for more reliable fats, i.e. fats of more consistent quality, than the hard fats at present available. Such a fat should preferably be compatible with most hard fats, particularly with cocoa-butter.